TO DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS, UEA MUST DIVEST FROM BARCLAYS

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Barclays, BP, careers events, climate change, climate emergency, Divest Barclays, divestment, education, employment, energy, engineering, ethical investment, featured, fossil free, Fossil Free UEA, fossil fuels, graduates, higher education, Loughborough University, media, norwich, oil, people and planet, Portsmouth University, recruitment, Shell, student activism, students, students' unions, UEA, universities, zero carbon.

By Henry Webb

Higher Education institutions have the power to decide whether the fossil fuel industry lives or dies. The dominant players in the energy sector may seem unstoppable. After all, as long as the oil keeps flowing, they’ll find someone to buy it. Their lobbyists will make sure of that. But these behemoths require resources beyond those of just the raw coal, oil, and gas that we are so dependent on – they need capital. Without investment banks to finance everything from pipelines to offshore rigs, the costly infrastructure needed for fossil fuel extraction just wouldn’t exist.

HISTORY, SPOKEN – THE VALUE OF DIALECT

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged academia, accents, British accents, British dialects, class, commodification, dialect, discrimination, elocution, employment, Estuary, family history, featured, Glasgow, higher education, history, london, professionalism, pronunciation, racism, received pronunciation, social mobility, working class.

By Kasper Hassett

In my earliest years, my great-grandmother used to sit with me in her bungalow, a low-roofed gloomy building with carpets like moss, to tell me I was the ‘best boy in the wewd’. I believed her, of course – she made fantastic cheese on toast and gave me ice pops (‘lolly ices’ to her) out of love. She was family. I took her words as law; I would recite everything I heard her say back to my mother when I was dropped off at our flat. But, rather than approval, I was met with correction – not of the message, but the delivery.

GRADE INFLATION, VESTED INTERESTS AND THE FAILURE OF MARKETISATION

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged competition, degrees, employment, featured, government, grade inflation, HESA, higher education, marketisation, media, Sam Gyimah, tef, Tories, tuition fees, universities, university vice chancellors, vested interests.

By Robyn Banks

Grade inflation is back in the headlines this week, with universities minister Sam Gyimah announcing that it will be incorporated into how universities are ranked under the Teaching Excellence Framework. There is statistical evidence to back up this policy change – according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of first class degrees being awarded has grown by 18% between 2012/13 and 2016/17. Whilst it is statistically true that grades are inflating at the university level, there are a number of issues with the current discourse around grade inflation that are not being properly addressed by HE decision makers.

EXAMS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED – HERE’S WHY

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-levels, assessment, campaigning, capitalism, casual employment, ChildLine, commodification, consumerism, counselling, education, employment, exam abolition, exams, featured, further education, GCSEs, higher education, hourly-paid tutors, knowledge, marketisation, May '68, mental health, mental health services, national curriculum, NSPCC, Paris '68, phD, postgraduate, postgraduate tutors, revision, schools, skills, stress, student activism, student mental health, teachers, UCL, UCU, undergraduate, universities, university drop outs, workforce, zero hours contracts.

By Dan Davison

Examinations are woven into the fabric of student life. From the ‘Key Stage’ National Curriculum assessments I sat in childhood through to the tests I took as a Master’s student, every stage of my education has known the familiar cycle of revision, testing, marking and grading. It was not until I became a precariously employed university tutor that I realised how dangerously uncritical we are of that cycle. By this point it seems so natural to make people sit exams at various points in their lives that it scarcely occurs to the public consciousness that students and teachers might be better off without such a regimented approach to learning.

40%

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged 40%, academia, degree, education, employment, first year, new year's resolution, pass mark, reading, skills, stress, students, teaching, undergraduate, university.

by Alex Powell

I’m sure you’ve all heard it at least once. ‘40% is all I need. It’s first year, it doesn’t really count for anything.’ It’s obvious, right? If the year doesn’t count towards your final degree classification, then you don’t really need to try. Right?

WHY LORD ADONIS IS WRONG ABOUT POLYTECHNICS

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Anglia Ruskin University, class discrimination, course cuts, education, employer bias, employment, establishment, funding, funding cuts, government, higher education, House of Lords, job cuts, Lord Adonis, lower income backgrounds, politics, polytechnics, postgraduate study, rent, staff cuts, student accommodation, student debt, student loans, student welfare, tony blair, tuition fees, universities, vice chancellor pay, voters, working class.

by Robyn Banks

This week, former education minister Lord Adonis decided to reopen a debate that was seemingly long-dead. During a report to a House of Lords Committee, he stated that the decision to allow polytechnics to become universities 25 years ago was “a very serious mistake”. This problematic claim reveals the real views of someone who has lately been seen as posing significant challenges of the higher education sector’s issues.

WHY THE TORIES DON’T CARE ABOUT NURSES

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #MayDUP, #OurNHS, activism, Brexit, Brexit negotiations, bursary cuts, crisis, cuts, DUP, employment, EU, EU students, EU workers, European Economic Area, european union, Free Education, frontline services, future, government, government cuts, health, healthcare, hospitals, How Come We Didn't Know?, Institute of Employment Studies, King's Lynn, magic money tree, Marion Macalpine, migrants, migration, NHS, NHS bursaries, NHS Norfolk Action Group, norfolk, norwich, nurse horror stories, nurses, nursing, nursing student applications, nursing students, politics, privatisation, Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn, research, Royal College of Nursing, St Margaret's Church of Art, staff shortage, student applications, student debt, student loans, students, Sustainability and Transformation plans, The Telegraph, Tories, tuition fees, UEA, underfunding, universities, workers rights, workforce, workforce crisis.

by Robyn Banks

CW: death, disease, corpses.

Last week we heard that the number of people applying to become nursing students has fallen by 19% in the past year. As this is the first application cycle since government cuts to NHS bursaries, for many this will not be much of a shock. It’s clear that the government’s decision to take away this provision that allowed many students to attend their courses will have serious detrimental effects, not only for the institutions that train nurses but for the NHS as a whole.

THE PARADOX OF TORY EDUCATION POLICY – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #7

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #GE2017, conservatives, cuts, education policy, employment, EU, EU students, exports, general election, HE policy, higher education, immigration quotas, international reputation, international students, manifesto, marketisation, migration, NHS, non-EU students, nurse bursaries, politics, racism, reputation, rights, skilled graduates, snap election, student numbers, student politics, student vote, students, Students and the Election, tuition fees, universities, university funding, university league tables, university rankings, voters, voting, xenophobia.

by Alex Powell

In the midst of multiple crises faced by students, universities and schools, the outcome of the snap general election will be a major indicator of the future of the UK education sector. Each week until the vote we are featuring perspectives from our regular contributors and guests on what the election could mean for students.

There is a severe dissonance between the conception of higher education that the Conservatives purport to support and the policies presented in their 2017 manifesto. In order to show this I have to work from within the Tory understanding of the purpose of higher education, and the role international students play within achieving that. Despite my adoption of this form of argumentation, I wish to make it clear that I do not subscribe to the idea that higher education is purely about reputation, financial stability, or the production of an effective workforce. Further, I do not accept the idea that international students are valuable only in terms of what they can offer to either educational institutions or the UK more generally. The current treatment of international students, and the blatant disregard shown for their welfare, is one of the most indefensible aspects of modern higher education policy.

THE URGENCY AND STATE OF SISTERHOOD IN 2017

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged capitalism, charlize theron, economy, emotions, employment, equality, Fawcett Society, female, female friendship, feminine, feminism, feminist philosophy, freedom, furiosa, gender pay gap, leora tanenbaum, mad max, madonna, planned parenthood, sisterhood, slut, suffragettes, togetherness, whore, women, women's rights, workers.

by Sunetra Senior

It’s becoming a popular thought in public consciousness that women ought to focus on their own autonomy and watch out for co-dependence on their closest female friends. It’s a third/fourth wave feminist philosophy that gained momentum through the hopeful nineties years, evidenced in such films as teenage clique critique ‘The Craft (1996). And surely, the thinker will say, a continued focus on personal freedom for women can only good? To these people I say: please remember we’re living in an unhinged, manipulative age.

With the infamous/illicit (?) inauguration on 20th January, we’ve just had Trumpeted to us social regression by at least 20 or so years so if the good fight for feminism is to keep up we must adapt the strategy accordingly. This means once again pushing for a support-group, grass-roots sort of approach – not unlike the Suffragettes who fought for the women’s right to vote in the early 19th century – whereupon more women not only campaign together, but sincerely support each other in their private relationships. Continue Reading

OXFORD’S PUBLICITY STUNT WON’T CLOSE THE UNIVERSITY CLASS GAP

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged bill clinton, Boris Johnson, buzzwords, capitalism, class, consumerism, degree, discrimination, diversity, education, elitism, employability, employment, family, graduate, graduate employment, graduate jobs, graduate unemployment, higher education, history of art, inclusivity, language, law, learning, lower income backgrounds, margaret thatcher, marketisation, middle class, module guides, nss, NUS, Phillip Hammond, politics, pressure, publicity stunt, student as consumer, student debt, student experience, student life, student loans, student satisfaction, students, students' unions, SU officers, Sutton Trust, teaching, tef, theresa may, tony blair, transferable skills, tuition fees, UCU, university, university management, University of Oxford, white, working class, working class students.

By Robyn Banks

This month Oxford University, in conjunction with the Sutton Trust, launched a summer school aimed at attracting more “white, working class boys” to the university. While this has received praise from some sectors of society, it does not address the real reasons why working class people (not just boys or men) are not attending universities like Oxford.

employment

TO DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS, UEA MUST DIVEST FROM BARCLAYS

By Henry Webb

GRADE INFLATION, VESTED INTERESTS AND THE FAILURE OF MARKETISATION

EXAMS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED – HERE’S WHY

40%

WHY LORD ADONIS IS WRONG ABOUT POLYTECHNICS

WHY THE TORIES DON’T CARE ABOUT NURSES

THE PARADOX OF TORY EDUCATION POLICY – STUDENTS AND THE ELECTION #7

THE URGENCY AND STATE OF SISTERHOOD IN 2017

OXFORD’S PUBLICITY STUNT WON’T CLOSE THE UNIVERSITY CLASS GAP

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